Château Fleur Haut Gaussens was founded in 1941, and has remained in the Lhuillier family for four generations. Hervé Lhuillier took over the estate in the late 1990s, continuing to draw on advice from his parents, who had run it for nearly 50 years before him. The 30- to 40-hectare vineyard sits on clay-limestone soils near Fronsac, in the village of Vérac on Bordeaux's right bank, and Hervé has built a reputation as one of the Bordeaux Supérieur appellation's rising stars, producing wines built to age in the style of the region's classified growths.
"La Bergeronnette" is a 100% Cabernet Franc, the second of the estate's single-varietal wines, launched a year after their pioneering Malbec bottling. It's made from a careful selection of the estate's best Cabernet Franc parcels, a grape that in Bordeaux typically plays a supporting role in blends but here is given full expression on its own. Expect a nose of peony and fresh red berries, with the light barrel aging lending subtle complexity without masking the grape's natural freshness, and a medium-bodied palate with fine-grained tannins and lively acidity.
The result is a rare, single-varietal take on Cabernet Franc from an estate known for pushing past Bordeaux's conventional blending traditions.